A lawmaker has called for a check to reduce the indiscriminate hormone treatments of precious puberty, pointing out that health insurance claims have sharply increased since the Covid-19 outbreak.
Rep. Shin Hyun-young of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) said so on Sunday based on her analysis of the “data on health insurance claims concerning precious puberty by medical departments at hospitals” submitted by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA).
According to Rep. Shin, the medical departments that recorded the largest increases in insurance claims due to precocious puberty since the Covid-19 outbreak was the Radiology Department at hospitals marking a 12.5 times increase, and the Anesthesiology Department at clinics showing 3.1 times growth.
Overall, the number of claims for insurance related to precious puberty by hospitals and larger medical institutions totaled 648,528 in 2021, 1.5 times higher than in 2019.
By medical departments in 2021, claims by the pediatrics and adolescent department accounted for a dominant share of 98.3 percent with 637,574, followed by the internal medicine department with 7,573 claims, and the Ob-gyn department with 888.
Compared to 2109, the radiology department’s 2021 claims showed the steepest rise of 12.5 times by totaling 175 cases, followed by 2.3 times by the internal medicine department, and Ob-gyn’s 2.2 times, according to the data.
Insurance claims by neighborhood clinics totaled 189,508 in 2021, nearly doubling that of 2019.
By department, the pediatrics and adolescent department made 132,289 claims to account for 69.8 percent, followed by the general department with 42,175 claims, or 22.3 percent, and the anesthesiology department, with 3,433, 1.8 percent.
Compared to 2019, the anesthesiology department’s 2021 claims showed the largest increase of 3.1 times, by the Ob-gyn department’s 2.9 times and the diagnostic radiology and imaging department’s 2.8 times.
“Since the Covid-19 outbreak, the number of treatments and diagnosis of precocious puberty has also increased due to an increase in childhood obesity," Rep Shin said. “However, in the case of precocious puberty, the causes of occurrence are various, and the treatment methods are different, so heightening professionalism in diagnosis and treatment is a prerequisite.”
Shin said, “Now that the insurance claims for precocious treatment have increased, it is necessary to check whether accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment are being provided in the field or indiscriminate hormone treatments are being made.”